Tuesday, June 7, 2016

SymbalooEDU - visual bookmarking tool


SymbalooEDU  is a visual bookmarking tool!  

It's all about the tiles and students just click or touch the tile to navigate right where you want them to be online.  With a free account, one can access your bookmarks from anywhere with any device and share online resources with "yourself" other teachers, or your students for unique lessons. 
Here is a screen shot of the WEBMIX for our NYS Teacher Centers with a tile/link to our Partner Companies.  Just search "New York State Teacher Centers" in the public webmixes and you can keep this as one of your tabs. 
You can search SymbalooEDU for any topic and grab the tiles, like "Math Grade 3".

Wednesday, June 1, 2016

Reducing the File size of a PDF

There are times when a pdf that you have created is too big for things like sharing via e-mail. You can use Preview to reduce the file size so that it is more manageable for the purpose that you need it for. You should note that this will also reduce the quality of the document.


1 -Open your PDF in Preview. If your PDF files are set to open in Preview, then simply double-click the file. If not, secondary/right click on the document and choose to open it in Preview. (If you aren't sure how to use secondary click you can view this video.)
Create a copy of the original file to test this method before applying it to your final PDF. This method can result in a lot of quality loss.


2 - Click File and select export. In the options, click the Quartz Filter menu, and select "Reduce File Size."




3 - Save the file. Select your desired location, then click Save. Your file will be saved in a much-reduced size. This may result in a noticeable drop in quality.